Scrapping Paradise

I've been reading these boards for awhile and have read many stories in this particular section and have found interest in many of them! A lot has been said about winter scrapping and cross country (or state) pick ups and drop offs. But not much (if anything) has been said about scrapping on an island. That's where I come in My name is Chad and I am the owner of Sustainable Solutions Hawaii, a Honolulu based e-waste and metal recycler. To my knowledge, we (by "we" I mean my friend and I) are the only company that offers free pick-up of e-waste (and free pick-up of CRTs with e-waste pick-up). Earlier this year, we secured a job hauling and processing all the e-waste from a local junk removal company (by far the largest on the island of Oahu). I thought I'd use this section to kind of peak a look at scrapping on an island with a little less than a million people.

A little Oahu scrapping background:
We have 3 main scrap metal buyers open to the public: Okuda Metal (does not buy scrap steel), Reynold's Recycling (a chain of recyclers operating out of shipping containers better suited to buying bottles and cans through Hawaii's HI-5 recycling program), and Island Recycling (by far the largest and most knowledgeable and most capable of the 3). Island Recycling is also a chain operating out of about 4 different locations. The catch is that all their scrap is trucked daily back to their main facility nearly 25 miles away. The cost of this passed onto the public (scrap prices and significantly lower at their satellite locations). They also do not buy circuit boards.

11 March 2014
We normally do our rounds on Fridays but we received a call this morning regarding some spent, 55-gal transmission fluid drums that needed to cleared from a warehouse. The owner of the warehouse told me he had about 20 so we were expecting two trips (we use a GMC Savana panel van). We arrive and it turns out he has closer to fifty. While not normally a problem, we didn't have the time to process the drums (for the yards in metro Honolulu, the drums must be sawed in half) and each round trip from his location to the yard and back is nearly about an hour and a half (30 minute drive one-way). We were able to clear our inventory of steel, copper, aluminium, and insulated wire as well as take 2 of his loads (we're going to finish the job this Friday). In total, we cashed in on a little more than 1000 lbs. of steel with absolutely no processing in between. Just loaded the barrels and dropped them off. We would've never had to leave the truck if we didn't have to get out at the weight station to get paid.

Coming later this week: I am expecting a 10' box truck full of servers, computers, and monitors this week and a few dialysis machines next week (all fluids drained and clean). Might have to lease a box truck for the weekend :]

Below: The beautiful blue sky above Kapolei/Campbell Industrial Park about 30 minutes outside of Honolulu with the 73MW "H-Power" Waste-to-Energy plant in the background. And yes, that is just mountains of scrap metal *drool*

29 April 2015
I haven't updated this thread in a year but I hope to make it more of a regular thing. I turned in a bunch of computer towers for steel today. This was the first time I've been to the yard since the drop in prices. My yard is paying 1.5 cents per pound for steel in Honolulu. Probably around 2 cents a pound at their main yard a half hour away. I only had towers so it wasn't worth the drive.

It was afterwards that I got the score though. I went to lunch at a favorite place near my home and noticed a computer repair place I never noticed before. I went inside and talked to owner who said he only threw away all the computers and stuff. We exchanged cards after he said he was very interested and he was unaware that anyone recycled electronic waste (its fairly new here in Hawaii and we're the only company that I know of that picks up electronic waste without a fee). He also asked if I was interested in some stuff he had on hand. I said, "Of course" and he leads me around back where he had about 10 towers and a few monitors. I quickly loaded it up and as I'm leaving he asks if we take other types of waste too. Other than computers. I inform him we take all kinds of electronic waste. Cell phones, peripherals, computer parts, drives (CD, disk, Hard), if it has a circuit board or if it used to have a circuit board we'll take it.

That's when he asked; "What about bad power supplies?" Long story short, he has what I estimate to be about 50 power supplies and boxes upon boxes of keyboards, mice, hard drives, disk drives, etc. I was shocked. I took the computers and he said he'd get back to me once him and his partner sort everything out. I sure hope he does.

Prices at the Yard Today
Steel/Shred - $0.015-0.03
Aluminium - $0.25-0.32
Copper - $1.22-1.60
Insulated Wire - $0.05-1.00
Non-insulated - $1.22-1.60 (same as copper)

Cardboard - $0.01

Lessons Learned
-Always carry your business card. Even if you're not on business.
-Always be looking for opportunities to grow and beat out competition.

Originally Posted by CTSSolutions

Right on 808!

I too hope he gets back to you about those burned up supplies!


You're in a good position being ahead of your competition on the island!

But $0.015/lb...OUCH

Yeah. Everything in Hawaii is lower. So when you guys think the prices on the mainland are bad, just remember that the prices here in Hawaii are close to a third of what your yards pay. Our yard has to ship the scrap from Hawaii, to the mainland, then to Asia (it cannot go straight to Asia due to the Jones Act) and that eats a lot of the profit. Not that I'm complaining. I have been seeing a lot more stuff being left on the curb and have thought about a return to Curbco because of it. Lots of refrigerators, microwaves, stoves, washing machines, etc.

Also, just some food for thought, the yard is paying $0.015 per pound for steel. The last time I went prior to the collapse in prices, they were buying cardboard for the same amount. Steel is now worth the same as cardboard here. Pretty bad. Luckily steel doesn't and has never made up the bulk of our revenue.

Here's a semi-walk through of a computer/server I took apart from the computer repair store.


Let's begin!


Those delicious guts!!


I don't know if I have a box big enough for this.


Drives and drives and drives.


Half way


I could play this card game all day long, if ya'know what I'm sayin'


As we say in Hawaii, "All Pau!"

Lesson Learned:
-Gloves are just as important when you are battling plastic as when you are working with the metal.

10 June 2015
I got a call over the weekend to pick up a couple of computers and a printer. Literally on my way, I got another call from one of my regular clients at a computer repair store saying they had a "pile of computer towers" for me. After picking up the computers and printers, I reach the computer repair store to find this waiting for me:

Brownie points to whoever can guess how much this all weighs (without the heatsinks)! I'll let yall know once it's sorted.

One of the workers asked me if I recycled motherboards. "Hell yeah I recycle motherboards!" Albeit most of these were missing the CPUs and RAM, I'll never complain about someone else doing most of the work for me!

We also went fishing.

I had my own personal dumpsters outside a local SA for many years and I ended up with many good items along with the crap. I know many things about the inner workings of the SA and Goodwill as it has been a part of my Life dealing with thrift stores and other such venders.

I learned that it is VERY difficult getting the thrift stores that hire the slow & stressed to get "the PLAN" of what goes in your dumpsters and what does not down within a science of any sort.

Some times I would find the garbage in my dumpsters and when I unlocked their dumpsters I would find the stuff meant for me. I always checked through their dumpsters before I checked and emptied mine as some times I would have a load from what they had tossed for the landfill that I wanted.

If you want to interest others into doing a certain type of function that is not in their programing you have to make it as EASY as you can by doing MOST of the thinking on your part so that others have to only follow your well thought out plan as best they can. You will still end up with a few mustard filled pampers and floor sweepings in your containers, but at least it is in a plastic bag most all times.

RE: Goodwill
I haven't thought about that. There is a local non-profit here that gives computers to disadvantaged families and I've reached out to them a few times. I've never thought about Goodwill and Salvation Army (and Savers for that matter). I'll keep that in mind!

@bigburtchino
Haha yup. You definitely pay for paradise. Last I filled in gas it was about $3.20 a gallon. And if you think that's bad, a dozen eggs costs nearly a dollar more than a gallon of gas.